54.3 34 My health

[bourrique]

Hi everyone,
I'm baffled by this. Not a clue. Whether I read RW or EB or LiSe, the line does not answer my question which was about my health. Context: the I Ching has been very positive about my undertaking a new life in a new place. The trouble is my health which is right now poor and which I don't feel the I Ching had factored in to any of its responses so I thought I would ask specifically about my health as I have hospital appointments here in the autumn. But a concubine???
I usually find the I Ching illuminating, not here though.
Can anyone help?

 

[meng]

Sometimes I think our physical health is something the Yi is h4 with. However it does seem to deal with the effects: physical and mental/emotional symptoms can fragment our psychological wholeness, and I think Yi (and Consciousness as a whole) generally tries to steer us in a direction to reckon with it from that angle: understanding and illumination.

As to the cause and your reading, I'd consider any addictions present and causing or exacerbating your physical condition. Examples could be: smoking, over-eating, alcohol, certain drugs, or any unhealthy lifestyle habits that you are (figuratively) a slave to. It could even be an unhappy vocation or toxic relationship. Financial difficulties can also play havoc on your system, even if you outwardly handle it well.

Another interpretation is that some foreign matter (germ, infection, etc) has found its way into your system, and there's a battle going on between them and your immune system.

Just some thoughts to kick about.

 

[bourrique]

Hi meng,
thanks for your response. Yes, I agree, the Yi doesn't seem to do physical health. I have seen poor health described as "weakness"
Much to ponder. I wish I knew how you got there. How DID you get there?
My problem is chronic back pain. The pain killers mess up my head. Sometimes I prefer the pain. Otherwise I don't smoke or drink and am normal weight but I can't exercise.

 

[meng]

If you take your "I" to be a person, then the person is responsible for taking care of its own life. But if the "I" is identified as Consciousness, then it becomes the Universe's responsibility to take care of your body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMCQlhMWjhY&feature=player_embedded#!

 

[meng]

We crossed posts, that was not my response to your last post. I find this teacher very helpful, maybe he speaks to your situation too.

 

[meng]

I wish I knew how you got there. How DID you get there?

I'm not sure what you mean. There is no finish line that I know of, no arriving, other than for more challenges and questions as they occur, as they are created and as they are gathered in with the tide or gravity. I observe that changes do occur which are gradual and more enduring, and getting there does seem to happen naturally just through observing the same natural cycles repeat themselves over a lifetime, inwardly and outwardly. That's a 2.2 thing. No one said 2.2 is something instant, though the state of mind can be. I've always experienced 2.2 as a wonderful thing, even during my extremely yang years. I commonly called it providence. Providence only works when I am open to receive a blessing or healing, even or especially a miracle.

I strongly empathize with your condition, having suffered chronic neck and back pain most of my adult life, and much of my adolescence as well, in the form of chronic headaches. I was a chiropractic addict. Talking 5-8 adjustments a week for years, and nearly as frequently for decades. I had lost all my upper body's elasticity through so many adjustments and treatments of various kinds, meanwhile babying the entire area so as not to bring on more pain. One day I decided to change my approach. First, I stopped wearing those awful neck tourniquets known as ties, then I bought a compact 60 lb curved bar weight set, and began powering through the pain with a strict high rep regiment of basic curls, presses and lifts. The result was a refortified support system for this big melon that sits on my neck, and a 95% healing of the once chronic condition. Now I'm in a bit of another bind since taking a hard fall on an unforgiving surface, causing a frozen left shoulder. I can't work out, and I don't want the old condition to return due to atrophy. Nope, there's no finish line I know of.

On how to end the 2.6 self-induced nightmare, can't entirely, cycles being what they are, but you can recognize the craziness sooner and find ways to just chill and let things happen as they're meant to.

 

[bourrique]

Hi meng, (we're in different time zones)
When I said "I wish I knew how you got there. How DID you get there?" I was asking how you got the list of afflictions and ailments you wrote above from 54.3 - but maybe the I Ching wanted to puzzle me back* by making me come to OLC. Maybe the answer is here and maybe it is in your empathic response and that video which was very helpful. It wouldn't be the first time the I Ching has been mischievous with me. The Yi moves in mysterious ways!
Thank you.

* my original question contains "I know you have said FEAR NOT but I am puzzled."

 

[meng]

Wow - to fear, or to fear not? I think the Buddha would answer yes, and then no. Or, no and then yes. Were I able to forever relinquish fear, I would not.

Still not sure I understand you here. Maybe if I share that my view of 54 is entirely part of the grand scheme of how things work to create, and be in this reality. It describes the very condition of life here on earth. When we get the feeling of, I don't belong here, you are right; you don't. You are not limited to being this person. But yet here you are, seemingly trapped inside this person, as though this person is more real than you are.

 

[bourrique]

Hi again meng,
I really appreciate your input.
This one is like the Hubble Space Telescope before it was fixed. I hope to get it into focus.
It seems to me that you are talking about 54 and I am talking about 54.3, the line.
And I read in the Wilhelm commentaries:
This hexagram is judged in very different ways ... (hence the problem)... the present hexagram has also so to speak a cosmic meaning. For, according to the arrangement of the eight trigrams by King Wên [Inner-World Arrangement2], the upper trigram Chên belongs in the east and denotes spring, the beginning of life; the lower trigram Tui belongs in the west and denotes autumn, the end of life, and the two nuclear trigrams K'an and Li represent the north (winter) and the south (summer) respectively. Consequently the whole cycle of life is contained in this hexagram.
That is your take, I think.

My focus has been on the line.

Ewald Berkers:
54. Marrying Younger Sister
Line 3
A younger sister marrying because she must.
Opposing a marriage to be a second wife.
Meaning: Opposing being forced into an inferior position.

LiSe Heyboer
6 at 3: The marrying maiden waits. Returns and marries as secondary wife.
All things come to the one who can wait. Who craves for something will take the first-best for granted, who stays in his own dignity will get the one with dignity.

RW/CB
Six in the third place means:
The marrying maiden as a slave.
She marries as a concubine.

A girl who is in a lowly position and finds no husband may, in some circumstances, still win shelter as a concubine.

This pictures the situation of a person who longs too much for joys that cannot be obtained in the usual way. He enters upon a situation not altogether compatible with self-esteem. Neither judgment nor warning is added to this line; it merely lays bare the actual situation, so that everyone may draw a lesson from it.

RW/CB Commentaries
Σ Six in the third place:
a) The marrying maiden as a slave.
She marries as a concubine.
b) "The marrying maiden as a slave": she is not yet in the appropriate place.
This is a weak line in a strong place, hence not in the appropriate position. Moreover, it stands at the high point of pleasure, hence throws itself away as the lowest type of slave, merely in order to achieve marriage at any cost. In following the nine in the second place, it finds shelter as a concubine.

I have not managed to see congruence in these renderings of the text. Nothing resonates with me.
Berkers speaks of obligation and refusal
Heyboer has a person with more self control, waiting and dignified.
Wilhelm/Baynes has a powerless person who gains very minor acceptance and who, in the Commentaries, throws herself away.

I can't make head nor tail of this. That is why I say the I Ching has puzzled me back. In puzzling me the Yi 'knew' I would come here, to OLC, for clarification. And who here answers me? A man who has experienced severe pain too, and found a way through. Before reading you, I saw the pain I am experiencing as an obstacle to what I want to do. You have made me see beyond the pain. Hence I say that the I Ching can't cure me but, like a good doctor, it pointed me to a kind of self-help group of fellow sufferers. What you wrote resonated with me.
Well that's my take anyway.

 

[meng]

I'm glad what I could offer you found in some way helpful.

I arrived at my reasoning of 54 based on its own merit and attributes, having nothing to do with King Wen sequence nor any other organizational basis. In fact I pay no attention to those sorts of things, with exception of trigram interaction significance.

I think the short of 54.3 regarding your situation infers being a slave to your body and its sensation. I don't see this as a moral judgment, merely stating a fact: you are held captive by this painful condition. It's as though your joy and ease play second fiddle to this demanding trombone. I feed birds each morning, and always chasing the overbearing pigeons away until the end. They're a real pain, and they chase away more fun and interesting birds.

This isn't to say give up on overcoming this pain in the neck. Just the opposite. In my case, exercise and moving to a dry climate, removing myself from toxic relationships and organizations. Maybe that's what your h34 is about?

 

[ginnie]

I think the meaning of 54 in general is: You are not the one who has chosen. For that reason, it comes up quite a bit with regard to illnesses and ailments.

54.3 indicates some small amount of progress lately.